Wells are drilled as a means to target oil and gas bearing formations at a particular depth. Where formations lack sufficient pressure to push fluids to surface, some form of “Artificial Lift” is employed to lift reservoir fluids from the wellbore. A common form of artificial lift consists of a pump at surface (such as a Pumpjack) that reciprocates a positive displacement pump downhole. The surface equipment is attached to the downhole pump via a string of sucker rods with a polished rod at surface. Reservoir fluids brought to surface are redirected at a surface wellhead and exit down a flowline.
To prevent wellbore fluids from exiting at the wellhead, a stuffing box is used to seal around the reciprocating polished rod. Stuffing boxes contain packing to provide a seal, but will leak over time allowing wellbore fluids to exit at the wellhead and contaminate the surrounding ground. Several catch basins have been designed as a means to contain fluids leaked at the wellbore and to store these fluids for future disposal. Some examples include United States Patent Publication No. 2004/0182567 (Matthews) entitled “Wellhead leak containment and blowout deflection apparatus,” U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,024 (Ladd) entitled “Oilwell spill containment,” and U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,784 (Evans) entitled “Wellhead leak containment”.